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Friday, September 16, 2011

University students in Montreal perform blackface and mock Jamaica and Jamaicans

MONTREAL—Students at an elite Montreal business school painted
themselves in blackface and chanted in mock Jamaican accents at a
back-to-school event that had the university expressing regret Thursday.
The frosh-week stunt was organized by a student sports committee at
the Hautes Études Commerciales, the Université de Montréal’s business
school.
Participants were encouraged to dress in Olympic-themed costumes,
with one group choosing to portray Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
Along with donning the colours of the Jamaican flag, several students
also covered their face, arms and legs in black paint. The colourful
attire included at least one Rastafarian hat, one green underwear
patterned with monkey faces, and a stuffed animal that students carried
around.
One witness, who is of Jamaican descent, said he felt uncomfortable
and was shocked to hear some students chanting, “Smoke more weed.” At
one point the students also repeatedly chanted, “Ya man!”
“It was terrible and I felt awful seeing it,” said Anthony Morgan, a 25-year-old law student at McGill University.
“Students at that level can’t have the idea in their head that this is OK.”
Morgan happened to be on the Université de Montréal’s campus
Wednesday afternoon as the event was taking place at the school’s
football stadium. He recorded the mock sprinters with his BlackBerry
camera.
He said he found the display deeply offensive because of the troubling historical connotations of blackface.
“It is connected to a longer tradition of minstrel shows, reducing
black people to pretty much jokes,” he said. “They’re put on as a
spectacle, to almost look grotesque.”
A spokesman for the business school said the stunt was unacceptable —
but he said there were no ill intentions. He said the students should
simply have chosen another way to get into the Olympic-themed spirit.
“They interpreted the theme poorly,” said Michael Lartigau.
“We spoke to the students and they found the reaction regrettable and are sorry.”
Lartigau would not comment on whether the students involved would face disciplinary actions.
The director of the sports committee that organized the event said a
“great deal of misunderstanding has surrounded” Morgan’s video, which
has since been posted on YouTube. In an email, Frank Sciortino said the
event was part of the committee’s efforts to encourage physical activity
and team spirit.
“My wish was simply to... assure you that in no way were they a racist act.”
Morgan said he doesn’t hold any hard feelings against the students,
but questioned what institutional safeguards were in place to prevent
such incidents from happening.
“As problematic as it was for the students to be doing this, I thought it spoke more about the university,” he said.